My videos inspired by my trips to the Museum of Liverpool

I made a couple of videos in relation to my trip out to Liverpool You can see them all here!

The first video is a summary of my trip, in this video you can see some of the best bits while I provide a speed drawing of the a study I did of James Hanley which was a painting on display. James Hanley was a writer who wrote 'Boy'.

This was his second novel, his "first novel of the sea", was first published by Boriswood as a limited edition of 145 in 1931.

Boy is the grim story of an intelligent thirteen-year-old boy, Fearon, from Liverpool who is forced to leave school by his parents so as to help support the family, by working "on the docks as a boiler-scaler".He hates this job and after being beaten by his father Fearon stows away on a ship. When he is discovered, as the ship is shorthanded, he is signed-on to the crew. Fearon's suffering continues on board where he is sexually assaulted. 

When the ship docks in Alexandria, Egypt, Fearon has his first sexual encounter with a woman, in a brothel, where he contracts syphilis. On the return voyage this disease rapidly develops. The novel concludes with the captain smothering Fearon to put him out of his misery and his body given to the sea. Novelist Hugh Walpole, in a review, described Boy as "A novel that is so unpleasant and ugly, both in narration and in incident, that I wonder the printers did not go on strike while printing it".

Then, when it was reprinted in 1934, in a cheap (second) edition with a "scantily dressed" belly dancer on its cover, Boy was prosecuted for obscenity. See the full wiki source here

 While I was there I got inspired to make to timeline video of all the books that shaped me as a person  after looking at some of the community timelines on display at the Museum of Liverpool.This then moved onto creating a video about what was happening to me as I was growing up at each of those phases in my life. 

I hope you like it! Let me know if you've been affected by any of the same things I'd love to know!

Vogue Sugar Ball House of Suarez!

Sugar is Rotten!

Why do I have candy lips and humbug eyes?

VOGUE Darling!

(full outfit at the bottom of the post!)

The House of Suarez Sugar Ball in Liverpool at Camp and Furnace. It was such an inspirational evening! If you’ve ever enjoyed Ru Paul, Monster Party or Paris is Burning then you would have felt right at home here.

      

Competing Houses were tarring up the runway showcasing their individuality and creativity. Like a traditional ball there were various themes including fantasy, realness and sex sirens. Everyone sizzled and popped!

 The event was hosted by host RikkiBeadle-Blair he embodies vogue and stirred up the crowd into a sugar fuelled frenzy. He was our mother for the evening and served up a sweet feast of candy sending the children into an uncontrollable wild rush for the rest of the night.

  Judges for the night included CouncillorGary Millar, The Vivienne (Ru Paul’s UK ambassador) and sexy Swedish Voguer, Benjamin Milan. When they announced the winners of each section the energy was palpable. There was stomping, clicking, cheers and screams of delight, it was infectious joy!  

 

 Some personal highlights featured towards the start with the Milky bar kid mixing rodeo moves with Voguing. A fantasy house outfit which had balloons caged under the dress, in a great reveal, the glass ceiling of the outfit opened and all the balloons escaped towards the crowd.

These two made my evening though. 

 We managed to find ourselves the cheapest hotel possible. It was um, minimalist- but at least clean. We had some pre-drinks in our room, listened to some tunes to help get us in the mood and did our make-up.

  I haven’t laughed so hard in ages it was great to clown around with them both. Some how we got back in the early hours with a purple dolls legs and a sparkly chocolate/poop prop. It took its toll on us though-the whole of the next day was a write-off. 

Finally this is what I was wearing: Ralph Lauren vintage candy stripe shorts, white tights and six inch high heels, they hurt, they really really hurt- but they helped with my view of the stage so they were an investment really!

Day trip to Liverpool

 Cast from Nature, Christine Borland, that raises questions of beauty within artistic representations of the dead body I was torn between something really beautiful and something quite disturbing.

The day started at the Walker gallery partly just to pee (much nicer than train loos). They have an exhibition of the winners of the John Moores painter prize. I was excited to see David Hockney's Peter Getting Out Of Nick's Pool . They also had work by Michael Raedecker, Mirage and a favourite of mine painter Peter Doig, Blotter.

Douglas Gordon

10 ms-1, 1994 video installation, 10:37 minutes

Footage that was originally created to study people with psychiatric impairments, the man is unable to stand the images are slowed down to a rhythmic sequence, I more fixated by this than a lava lamp!

We then moved on to the Bluecoat for the adapted Dutch Neit Normal exhibition. The exhibition is apart of DaDA festival (on until 2nd September) showing interesting and challenging work which plays with perceptions and notions of 'normality' and human behaviours. The exhibition is really worth a look the exhibition is fantastic collaboration all round.

For more details check out www.dadafest.co.uk

 Karlin Sander, 135 Museum vistors and 1 Dog 1:8, 2008

copyright of artist and Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg VG Bildkunst Bohn.

We then watched Mean Little Deaf Queer, a reading from Terry Galloway's memoir by the artist herself. She was totally captervativing; her story was brutealy honest, tender and emotionally raw. I could picture every detail as my own experience through her words; I felt the confusion and excitment of her sexual awakening. You can actually listen to her performance here on her website to gain a small insight to her beautiful performance. I was particularly pleased to exchange a little hug from her as she left the Bluecoat.

I'm going back tomorrow for The mean spirit workshop and performance a collaboration between Fittings media and David Hoyle (review will come soon).

 Birgit Dieker, Bad Mummy, 2005 Collection Amelie Nothomb, Paris

We ended the day by walking down to the Tate Liverpool and the Turner Monet Twombly exhibition this exhibition creates a wonderful opportunity to compare and contrast various forms of landscape painting through the ages.

Of everything I saw at Tate Liverpool I was particularly drawn in by War, Excile and the Rock Limpet 1842

The figure in the painting is Napoleon gazing down and reflecting upon the impact of those lost at war. There is a figure in the distance approaching Napoleon; it is as though the figure is looking for the words to console the leader within a dream like landscape. The colours within the painting are displayed in a vivid spectrum areas are lit in blues, green and red.

The exhbition is on until the end of October loads of time to see the whole lot!